Using the Social Media Firehose, which I built in order to listen to people talking about salesforce.com, I often happen across conversations that weren’t intended for me. Choosing whether or not to respond to these conversations, and how to respond to them, can be quite a challenge, as this NYTimes article on comcastcares covered today. Over time, I’ve developed some rules of thumb that may be useful to other social web enthusiasts.
- Try to imagine how startled the other person might be when you respond. It’s often easy to judge from the other conversations people are having, whether they are used to talking with strangers on the internet. Most people choose to be in denial about the open nature of the internet, so it helps your cause to not perturb their flimsy shells.
- If responding makes sense, but you feel that the other person will be startled, use a long introduction describing what you do and why you do it. Something on the lines of “My name is XYZ and I work at BigCorp. I try to proactively help people who’re having trouble with our services, so I run daily searches for anyone writing about our product on the internet. My searches brought your blog to my attention today…” would work nicely. The buffer of words helps soften the surprise. If you’re surprised by what they’ve written, say so - mutual surprise often has a way of resolving in laughter.
- Choose the medium you want to use carefully. Some people are pleasantly surprised when you respond to them with a personal email sent to an address they expose. Twitterers almost always appreciate replies, but don’t want you to start following them just because they tweeted about your brand once (I learnt this one the hard way). Tracking back someone who doesn’t even know they’re using a “blog” is just nuts.
- Never, ever use the words “monitor” or “overheard”
In the end, simply use your emotional & social intelligence. Try to put yourself in the context of where the other person is coming from. Not everyone thinks about the internet the way you do.